Itsudatte Bokura no Koi wa 10 cm Datta. – 01 (First Impressions)

What’s this, eight weeks into the season? A new high school romance comedy-drama from Studio Lay-duce (formed from ex-Bones members) that, at least for the moment, does not involve love polygons or an obsession with communication through the LINE app.

Instead, we have a built-in compatible couple in Aida Miou (Toyosaki Aki) and Serizawa Haruki, both creative people born in the spring. There’s mutual attraction, but due to the contrast between Haruki’s flashiness and popularity and Miou’s modesty bordering on self-loathing, the two find it difficult to get any closer than ten centimeters together.

Gimmicky title aside, this first episode efficiently establishes both Miou and Haruki as good decent people who are novices when it comes to romance, and the dynamic between their different outward personalities and a kind of inner connection that draws them closer together.

The fact that coming closer happens so organically, before they realize it, a friend of Haruki plasters the chalkboard with playful slogans. Miou does not like the spotlight, or even appearing in Haruki’s camera lens, but Haruki wastes no time telling his buddy that this kinda thing is not okay, while telling Miou not to let it get to her.

The network of friends, which consists of three girls and three boys, doesn’t seem ripe for any kind of conflicts. Miou’s friends assume she and Haruki are already girlfriend and boyfriend, even though they just go home together most afternoons because they’re “headed in the same direction.”

Of course, as we watch their chemistry unfold together, it’s clear it’s not just practicality that drives their after-school walks. Haruki likes Miou and Miou likes Haruki, but Haruki wishes Miou wouldn’t criticize herself so often, using the phrase “somewhat like me” like it’s going out of style and having no confidence. Yet for all his bombast, Haruki isn’t any closer to drawing nearer than 10cm from Miou. It’s something they’ll have to figure out together.

While hardly a groundbreaking or risky show, 10cm is thoroughly competent and enjoyable, with a minimum of the teen angst that tends to sour these kinds of shows. It also has the benefit of a totally stacked all-star cast including Toyosaki and Suzumura Kenichi, Kamiya Hiroshi, Tomatsu Haruka, Kaji Yuki, and Asumi Kana.

I don’t care what you’re making, if you get this amount of talent behind it it’s bound to be good. Looks like this will be only six episodes total, so I don’t see the harm in checking it out, late in the season though it may be.